The Oakland City Council's Rules and Legislation Committee decided today not to advance hearings on legislation proposed by Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan that would eliminate a rule tenants say is being used by landlords to remove housing from the city's rent control law.
[br] The rule states that whether a landlord "substantially rehabilitates" a building — by improving each apartment unit the landlord can permanently exempt the entire property from rent control. Substantial rehabilitation is defined as spending more than 50 percent of what it would cost to build an equivalent number of current housing units.
Tenants say the exemption is a loophole that doesn't fulfill any fair public policy goals,and they say it's resulting in renters losing their homes or being hit with large rent increases.
Marlon Jones, who has lived in the same four-unit apartment building for 42 years, and told members of the committee that she's facing a large rent increase and will be displaced whether her landlord,JDW Enterprises, succeeds in exempting the property from rent control.
"JDW bought the building five years ago, or but it wasn't unoccupied," said Jones.…
Source: eastbayexpress.com